Jan 23, 2024 By Bob Hertzel 4 min read

MORGANTOWN – In the ever revolving and evolving basketball team that is West Virginia’s, another change is about to occur, one that will make a complete team but that will require a bit of lineup reconstruction.

With the team set to go on the road for two games, playing Tuesday night at 7 p.m. at Central Florida and then on to Oklahoma State on Saturday coming off a stunning home upset of No. 3 Kansas, coach Josh Eilert will try to integrate his starting center back into the lineup after five weeks without him as he recovered from a broken bone in his right wrist.

It is the best news Eilert could have received short of allowing him to start the season over again with all his players available.

But as Sir Isaac Newton discovered, an apple falling earth can sometimes conk you right on the head.

The situation is that the Mountaineers are currently playing their best basketball of the season and, more importantly, have created a strong on-court chemistry, a vital item that was lacking because of the many comings and goings of players through the first half of the season.

So, as Jesse Edwards gets back onto the court – and it probably will be a cautious transition – they will fine-tune not only the style of play on the court but the chemistry they had established as he sat out.

See, in his absence, Pat Suemnick filled in at the 5-spot (he is really a 4), and played at a higher level than anyone, other than himself, imagined. He was the engine, a man out of position giving them energy, points, rebounds and confidence.

How will Eilert use the two of them?

“They can certainly play together but we have other guys who give us more options,” Eilert said. “That’s what I wish I had in the beginning was more options.”

When the season got underway with Suemnick unproven and Akok Akok injured, Eilert ran everything through Edwards and got a boost by strong play from Quinn Slazinski, but he couldn’t be aggressive with either because there was no depth.

“Early on in the season all I was worried about was Jesse getting in foul trouble and how we’d navigate that. Now we have that problem shored up to where we can be more aggressive with Jesse,” he said. “We have Pat to service all those minutes if he does get in foul trouble. I feel I have more flexibility. That’s especially true in this league, where flexibility is critical.”

So, Suemnick will play 5 when Edwards is not on the court and play at the 4 other times. But play he will.

“Pat is probably the best 5 option outside of what I had with Jesse. He certainly can shore up any minutes without Jesse, but he can also play the 4 and guard the 4. Akok is also a 4 as well. Quinn is a 4, so we have more options there,” Eilert said.

“He’s going to be a critical part of anything we do moving forward. Having that confidence rolling, he knows deep down the way he can play. I don’t think he can second guess himself in any way, that will be in our best interest,” Eilert added.

Edwards, pre-injury, averaged 14.8 points and 8.7 rebounds a game after transferring to WVU from Syracuse. He scored in double figures in every game other than the UMass game, when he went 1-for-7 in just 15 minutes while suffering the injury.

How quickly he comes back remains uncertain, although he may well return as quickly as Tuesday’s game against Central Florida, which also owns an upset victory over Kansas.

He returned to practice on Friday and was dressed for the KU game but did not play.

“We say he practiced before KU and he did, but it was very limited in 5 on 5s. He was there, he was active, he did all the drills, but we limited him for the 5 on 5s. We threw him out there for some contact drills, but he got uncomfortable at one point when he tried to guard big Ali (Ragab, a 7-foot walk-on center who is redshirting) in the post, so we backed off.

“We have to be careful with it and make sure we’re not pushing it too fast.”

The problem is WVU has to move fast. With a 7-11 record and 13 games left they need to go 9-4 the rest of the way to finish 16-15 but it will probably take a 17-14 record to crack the NCAA field.

The other problem is, they have not yet won a game away from the Coliseum.